


To the Future

by nonstandardx



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fix-It, KICK forever and ever until the end of time, M/M, Post-Canon, canon won't stop me, literally wrote this out of spite, spoilers for s8!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 06:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16989861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonstandardx/pseuds/nonstandardx
Summary: It’s been a year since that event. They say time heals all wounds, but for Lance it’s not the case. He sees her when he closes his eyes. He hears her laugh in the wind chimes outside his house. He feels her touch, her warmth, her love.Knock. Knock. Knock. Who’s there? He opens the door and is greeted by the sight of his former leader and rival, Keith.“What are you doing here?”“I’m staying with you.”





	To the Future

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this out of spite. At 12 midnight. Klance is still canon, no matter what anyone tells me. Here's my rendition of what happens after everything is said and done. 
> 
> Dedicated to the writers. In Filipino, ito pala ang sinayang mo. (this is what you wasted,)

It’s been a year since _that_ event. They say time heals all wounds, but for Lance it’s not the case. He sees her when he closes his eyes. He hears her laugh in the wind chimes outside his house. He feels her touch, her warmth, her love.

 

 _Knock. Knock. Knock_. Who’s there? He opens the door and is greeted by the sight of his former leader and rival, Keith.

 

“What are you doing here?” He cringes. His throat feels like sandpaper. He hasn’t talked in so long. Keith doesn’t seem to mind. He has a soft smile on his face, looking at him like he’s his world.

 

“I’m staying with you.” Keith walks inside his house, a large bag in hand.

 

“What about the Blade?” Lance raises an eyebrow. Doesn’t he have an entire organization to lead? He can’t just drop everything for him. He’s like no one.

 

“I sorted it out with my mom and Kolivan. It’s fine.” Keith responds. He places his bag on the ground. He looks at Lance with those piercing eyes that Lance has always admired. Keith always seems to look not just at him, but through him.

 

“I left you once.”

 

“Uh huh.” Lance blurts, unconsciously going back to how he used to banter with his friend.

 

“Twice.” Keith clears his throat. “Many times now that I think about it. But I won’t do it again. I won’t let anyone leave you again.”

 

He strides forward and envelops Lance in a hug. A younger Lance would have been ecstatic. Or grossed out. Present Lance is neither. He stiffens. He hasn’t had human contact in forever. His mind starts going blank. But he doesn’t mind. At least he doesn’t feel like crying. He’s forgotten how it feels to be happy.

 

\---

 

Lance agrees to let Keith move in. They share a room and bed, a pillow separating the two. Keith helps out around the farm and it’s nice having to do less work. Kosmo and Kaltenecker even form a sort of friendship - with the cow allowing the wolf to ride on her back as she walks around the fields. Kosmo teleports her back to the shed once she’s tired.

 

Keith is nothing but sweet. Time has smoothened out his rough edges and he’s actually become quite funny. Who knew he was hiding a sense of humor this entire time? Even if his jokes are mostly knock knock jokes. Even if Lance can’t bring himself to chuckle, he finds a smile sneak its way on his face somehow.

 

Lance doesn’t do his skin care routine anymore. Looking at the mirror and seeing those marks is as painful enough as it is because all he sees is _her_.

 

One night, he summons enough courage to not rush washing his face and actually look at the mirror. Wrinkles, eye bags, little scars here and there. It’s a far cry from his once flawless face. He wants to break the glass. He doesn’t want to look at his face anymore.

 

“Hey.” Keith’s voice snaps him out of his thoughts. “You’re taking too long, I have to brush my teeth too.” He walks in, and stops beside Lance to look at their reflections.

 

Lance has so many things he wants to say. How his skin is flaky and dry, how he has pimple scars and wrinkles, and how it looks like he hasn’t slept in a century and those marks that seem to taunt him but what comes out is -

 

“My ears are hideous.” It’s what she told him when they first met.

 

Lance sees Keith’s reflection look at him. His eyes, they’re so soft. He doesn’t turn because he doesn’t think he’ll be able to look at those eyes without feeling like he isn’t worthy of a glance.

 

“I think they’re cute.” Keith whispers. His eyes turn yellow, sclera narrowing. The eyes of a Galra. “I think these look uglier though. No one could ever look as good as you.”

 

Lance can’t help it. He chuckles, and it’s as if a weight is being lifted from his heart. Keith’s jaw drops. It’s adorable. He looks at Keith, eye to eye.

 

“You’re right. Your mullet’s as ugly as ever.”

 

\---

 

Lance has changed. It’s inevitable, given their entire journey in space as defenders of the universe. He’s no longer that cargo turned fighter pilot cadet who loved messing around in the simulator. He doesn’t flirt with any alien that looks his way anymore. Heck, he’s not even with people anymore.

 

He’s quiet now. Keith has to be the one to initiate the conversation. They mostly talk about each other. Surprisingly, there’s a lot they don’t know. Keith’s favorite color is blue. Lance’s is red. They loved playing flight simulator on ancient desktop computers. They share a love of 80s songs - the kind that you can belt while drunk off cheap beer and piss off your neighbors.

 

Those are the good days. On the bad days, Lance thinks of _her_ and sees her in everything. Even Keith. Suddenly, she’s the one calling him “sharpshooter” and “loverboy” and it’s hard to distinguish between the past and the present. Lance doesn’t talk and Keith keeps pushing it, in the way he likes to attack without thinking. They clash and it makes sense. They met over an argument. On some days it’s all they ever do. But there’s one thing Keith does that always makes Lance forgive him.

 

\---

 

On their first day, Keith tells him “I love you.” Way back in space, before Keith left for the Blade of Marmora, it would have been Lance’s dream made reality. But current Lance is tired, mournful, pensive. He has no room for “I love you.” He can’t even love himself anymore. So he replies with a “not yet”.

 

Keith ends every day with an “I love you” and every argument falls by the wayside. Lance finds it in himself to forgive. They’re not perfect but every bad day becomes not as bad with Keith by his side. Lance doesn’t respond to Keith’s declarations of love but he makes sure to give him a smile. Even if he has to force himself. It’s the least he can do for his best friend.

 

\---

 

As it turns out, with the right person, time does heal. Slowly. Gradually.

 

Winter turns to spring.

 

Ice melts into a flowing river.

 

Flowers bloom from cold, hard, soil.

 

So does Lance with Keith. He finally starts touching Keith again, after starving himself of touch for the past year.

 

A brush of hands while doing the dishes.

 

An arm on Keith’s shoulder while the boy fries eggs.

 

A tap on the head because Lance outgrew Keith once more. Keith is bitter. But in the joking kind of bitter you can only have with your closest friends.

 

\---

 

On the anniversary of the day she sacrifices her life for the universe, Lance is outside, on the porch of his house. Once again, he sees the ghost of a girl he once knew and loved.

 

She caresses his face and kisses his forehead. For once, he’s not breaking down in tears. He breathes out a sigh of relief.

 

“It’s okay to let go.” A whisper in the wind. The wood chimes sing. A shouting voice breaks the moment.

 

“Lance!” He hears his name from inside the house. “Lunch is ready! I didn’t burn anything this time!”

 

Lance takes one last look at the girl he once loved and she nods. _Go_.

 

He moves forward.

 

To his leader.

 

To his future.

 

Lance enters the kitchen and sees Keith placing plates and utensils on the table. He puts his arms around Keith’s waist and leans on his shoulder.

 

“I love you.” Lance says. Keith almost drops a plate and swears. Lance laughs. A hearty, joyful laugh full of mirth and cheer. One that he hasn’t heard from his own voice in so long.

 

This is it. What he’s always wanted to say all these years, ever since their days in the Garrison. It took an adventure in space and back, a trip through realities and countless bonding moments to realize it.

  
Red and Blue.

 

Black and Red.

 

The chief and his right hand.

 

Together.

 


End file.
